Comments on: City Council Panel Approves Streetcar Plan

By: Seattle Transit Blog » Seattle Transit Blog

Seattle Transit Blog » Seattle Transit Blog — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:22:19 +0000

[...] City Council Panel Approves Streetcar Plan [...]

By: Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 14:15:25 +0000

Well Portland is very similar to Seattle and their streetcar (and light rail) seems to work very well.

By: Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:05:55 +0000

supposedly kids clime into the old counterbalance area beneath the street.

By: chh

chh — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:52:42 +0000

Bringing Thurston County into our taxing district could make it pretty tough to pass future ballot measures, I would think. Prop 1 barely passed in Pierce County.

Also, do we really need Sounder all the way to Olympia? Seems like building upon the 4 daily Cascades trains would be a better way to go.

By: NSBIll

NSBIll — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:06:28 +0000

The nice thing about rail (in general) as well is that it makes it more obvious where the dang thing goes, as opposed to a bus. Hopping on a bus is always an adventure if you’re not super familiar with the area.

And I believe there are still cables running under Queen Anne Ave N up the hill. That’s one of the reasons why that new park at the base is called the Counterbalance. So an SF-style cable car wouldn’t be totally uncalled for.

By: L

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:42:18 +0000

Rent out the SLUT, baby!

By: Oran

Oran — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:35:54 +0000

Damn, that’s where the next STB meetup should be!

By: Oran

Oran — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:29:33 +0000

Link in the Rainier Valley runs in the raised median of MLK with curbs.

MAX through downtown Portland runs in dedicated lanes marked with diamonds that are paved differently with raised pavement markers separating it from traffic. Cars could easily drive in those lanes if they wanted to. Not so much with Link in RV.

By: ericn

ericn — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:17:28 +0000

It’s pretty similar to Rainier Valley. The short block lengths limit MAX to two-car trains, if I recall correctly.

By: chh

chh — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:20:18 +0000

It is okay if the streetcar is slower than walking? That is going to convince people to get out of their cars? HA!

By: Matt the Engineer

Matt the Engineer — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:11:37 +0000

//it might get boring to speculate over the next 6, 12, or 16 years//

Like that’ll stop us. ;-) I predict we speculate a good hundred times in the next year alone.

On the other hand, a lot can happen in 16 years, and if we run out of oil we’ll have to find something to spend all of that gas money on.

By: John Jensen

John Jensen — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:58:12 +0000

Dedicated lanes like Link in the RV? I think still waiting for stoplights and worried about crazy drivers and short block lengths present problems.

By: chh

chh — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:57:03 +0000

MAX though downtown is in dedicated lanes.

By: John Jensen

John Jensen — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:56:13 +0000

If Ballard’s RapidRide comes online along with a streetcar then realistically there might be pressure to put light rail along another corridor for ST3. It’ll be a while before the staff will begin planning for future expansion, so it’s kind of a wait and see game. To be honest, a subway from Downtown to Queen Anne via Belltown would be insanely awesome. Presumably under 2nd Ave, it’d also be insanely expensive. Getting that line north to Ballard or out to West Seattle is its own funding challenge.

Fortunately ST will be pretty much be forced by subarea equity and the bus tunnel’s capacity to start a new spur in Seattle. UW-Ballard, Ballard-Downtown, and Downtown-West Seattle are the corridors being studied under ST2. Of course, any option could be (read: will be) taken piecemeal.

We’re not going to vote on it until 2016 or later though, so it might get boring to speculate over the next 6, 12, or 16 years. :(

By: alexjonlin

alexjonlin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:40:58 +0000

You could just have the curb bulb out

By: alexjonlin

alexjonlin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:34:09 +0000

Hah well looks like they were able to fit in plenty of parking there.

By: alexjonlin

alexjonlin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:24:52 +0000

Yeah, and plus light rail to Ballard would probably take a different route, and be completely grade separated.

I would want it to go in a tunnel with stops in Belltown, Seattle Center, Uptown, and Queen Anne, then come out of the tunnel and be elevated along 15th, stopping at Interbay, and then going into a tunnel again under the cut and ending in Ballard.

By: alexjonlin

alexjonlin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:19:49 +0000

San Francisco is more Light Rail than streetcar. It’s basically a subway all the way from Embarcadero to West Portal, then when it gets out to the neighborhoods, it runs in traffic.
And have you ever been to Portland? Its extremely successful streetcar runs completely at grade in traffic through downtown. The MAX does too, which I think is a bad thing, as MAX is supposed to be regional, rapid-ish transit.

By: AJ

AJ — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:42:39 +0000

I think that’s the idea anyhow– there’s always the floated idea of shutting 1st to traffic in a large swath by the market, but this is just as good.

By: Matt the Engineer

Matt the Engineer — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:06:57 +0000

I prefer having the streetcar in the middle of the road, since making improvements that allow for pedestrians to easily access islands would slow down traffic on 1st. Considering the retail areas all along 1st this is actually a good thing.

That being said, I could imagine this implemented well with streetcar lanes outside of traffic lanes instead.